Lanterns is a tile laying, color matching, set collection game for 2-4 players, which takes about 20-30 minutes to play.
How to play......
This game really has only three things in it you’re trying to do, but it does have a decent amount of strategy for what I would class as a filler game.
You start with a hand of three lake tiles – representing the lanterns of different colors floating on the water. On your turn each player can make a dedication (this is when you hand over lantern cards to claim point tiles) in the first round you won't be able to do this as you won't have the number of lantern cards required. When you do have sufficient lantern cards these as described can be handed in to claim the points so for example if you have four of a kind of any of the seven different colored lantern cards, you can ‘dedicate’ them and collect the top red dedication token. If you have three pairs you can collect the top blue dedication token. If you have one of each of the seven colors, you get the top green dedication tokens. These tokens each start with 8, 9 and 10 respectively and the numbers go down as players obtain them. This is what you use to get your end-game points.
Each player places one of their tiles, when you place a tile everyone gains a lantern card based on the colour that faces them, this is the strategic part as you want the cards for your benefit but at the same time watching that you don't give your opponents too much advance. If however you match a colour on your tile to an colour on another tile then you get a bonus lantern card of that colour. On some of the tiles there are pictures if your tile touches one of these when placed you also get a wooden disc (favor token) which is great when you have 2 of these as it allows you to exchange 1 lantern card for any colour lantern card, this is especially useful when claiming point tiles. At the end of your turn you then draw a replacement tile.
This continues until all tiles are drawn and placed. Total up the points and declare the winner!
I really liked this game although the mechanics are a bit different, this game does come very close to the feel I get from Splendor both in complexity and in terms of strategy. I think this is a nice filler game and one that most people will enjoy.